The MontyVerse

It’s hard to believe that there was a time when the idea of a post-apocalyptic society didn’t include things like vast empty deserts and men covered in leather, yet George Miller’s vision of the Wasteland essentially codified this dystopia with his work in the Mad Max films.  It’s a creative vision so strong and singular that any subsequent works that feature anything even remotely similar draws comparison almost immediately.  His original trilogy, featuring Mel Gibson as the titular Max Rockatansky, built the foundation for so much of what we see in this subgenre today, and it’s easy to see why.  

In 2015, after 30 years of witches and talking pigs and dancing penguins, Miller came back with a vengeance when he brought Mad Max: Fury Road to the masses.  The king had returned, and the world was ready to bow down.  He, alongside the incredible crew he assembled, redefined what it meant to exist in the Wasteland, and audiences reacted in kind with solid box office, strong reviews and a litany of awards, including 10 nominations and 6 wins at the 88th Academy Awards.  Action films are a dime a dozen, but something Miller & co. did here connected in a way virtually no others have when it comes to awards notice.  And for a director over 70 to come out swinging the way he had, it was all the more impressive.

Nine years have passed since we all got our first chance to view the fourth foray into the furious madness that grabbed hold of our brains and wouldn’t let go.  George Miller is now 80 years old, a filmmaker with less road ahead of him than behind.  With Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, Miller has called everyone’s bluff and attempted to continue the insanity of his greatest vision despite the inevitable comparisons that everyone will make.  But how does this fifth adventure rank when compared to what came before?

5. Mad Max

When mainlining every entry of this series back to back, there’s a strong sense of whiplash when it comes to viewing the first film alongside what came later, yet that doesn’t mean it’s worth writing off entirely.  Miller’s original film is barely what we’ve come to recognize from this series, a world still somewhat functional but in the midst of collapse.  It’s somewhat jarring in hindsight to see that the very events that shaped Max’s journey really don’t happen until the last 20 minutes or so.  Before that, it’s an odd film that takes its time just living on the brink of disaster before it explodes at the end.  I’m not quite as high on this entry as some others might be, mostly due to the strange pace and curious structure to the film, which barely has a plot to follow until the third act, yet there’s enough there with the car chases and bits of worldbuilding to keep it interesting.  Miller proved that with a small budget he could pull off what some people today with $200mil+ productions still can’t.

4. Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome

The third entry in Miller’s saga, Beyond Thunderdome is a strange beast.  There are so many interesting ideas with the world we’re shown, and the film feels like it only wants to remain surface-level in how it presents most of it.  The back half feels like it was built from a different movie, relying on a group of kids akin to Peter Pan’s Lost Boys functioning like Ewoks.  And yet somehow, despite how clunky and messy the movie ultimately is, it’s undeniably enjoyable, maybe even because of the mess.  It’s silly and feels out of place tonally but never wavers from its attempts to entertain.  While this movie may feel like the most compromised and studio-friendly version of what a movie like this should’ve been at the time, the action and charm help it coast by.

3. The Road Warrior

From the goodwill of the first film came its much more distinct and influential follow-up, complete with the leather daddy look we’ve come to expect from this series.  This second installment is up there alongside Aliens and Terminator 2: Judgment Day as one of the great action sequels, taking what we know about the original and blasting a shotgun shell through its chest.  The cars are louder, the chases are faster and the action more explosive, leading to an ultimately far more thrilling venture.  The legacy for The Road Warrior is firmly cemented, and having it sit in the middle of the pack isn’t a knock on its quality so much as an endorsement for what came much further down the line.

2. Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga

While Miller’s original trilogy has its place in pop culture, they don’t quite hit the same heights as his late-period triumphs.  The latest film, which doesn’t even tell a story about Max, is both exactly what I wanted and nothing like I expected. Where Mad Max: Fury Road is a propulsively action spectacle built on insane set piece after insane set piece, Furiosa takes its time to breathe and explore the world deeper than ever before.  What’s even better is that whereas most prequels set out to similarly explore things that didn’t need further explanation, here the worldbuilding and characters are so strong that they ultimately bolster and strengthen Fury Road as an even greater film than we’ve already accepted it to be.  Anya Taylor-Joy takes over the role of Furiosa from Charlize Theron and she is more than up to the task.  Casting her feels like a stroke of genius, since she has barely any lines and relies far more on physicality and those large emotive eyes to convey so much.  Alyla Browne is also great as the even younger Furiosa, getting far more screen time than one would assume.  Chris Hemsworth gives what is most certainly his best work to date as Dementus, the dumbest, most charming leader of violent men in the Wasteland, and most certainly the MVP of the film.  This isn’t Fury Road, but it’s not trying to be.  It’s meaner, nastier and more sprawling, creating a much richer and rewarding viewing experience.  This is Fury Road’s B-side, a messier, more complex and ambitious vehicle that’s as enthralling in its character drama as it is with its stunning action set pieces.  George Miller made his version of a Biblical epic here, a far-reaching saga that serves as the perfect companion to…

1. Mad Max: Fury Road

…one of the greatest action films of all time, which makes it one of the greatest films of all time.  Much has been said of the lightning in a bottle that is Fury Road, but rarely has a film come out and met the stratospheric hyperbole head-on and wreck all expectations.  It’s a movie that clearly looks like it should have fallen apart immediately, yet it’s held together through sheer ingenuity (and frankly a bit of luck, based on how nervous people had been making the movie, since they had no idea how it would turn out).  10 Academy Award nominations and 6 wins, yet somehow Charlize Theron missed out on a Best Actress nomination for a performance she probably should have won for.  The same can be said for George Miller with Best Director and Best Picture, but at the end of the day awards just help boost the signal to get more people to watch stuff. Mad Max: Fury Road is George Miller’s magnum opus, a brain-busting jaw-dropping work of a master at the top of his game and made all the better by Furiosa deepening the emotional impact here.  Shiny and chrome, indeed.